Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(24)

“I’m saying I think this is a kidnap for ransom.”

“Call WYEP and get any footage they took today for their newscast,” Josie said. “There’s a remote possibility they might have picked up the kidnapper heading toward or leaving the carousel.”

“On it,” Mettner said.

“We need to have a much longer conversation with Amy and Colin,” Josie added.

From outside the tent came the rumble of several large vehicles. Josie and Gretchen looked at one another and hurried out. The FBI arrived in force, driving in a caravan of large vehicles including what looked like a tricked-out camper and a van marked Evidence Processing. As they pulled up outside the park and began to emerge from their vehicles, Josie counted well over two dozen agents. A tall, burly black man strode across the playground, his face grim and determined. When he reached them, he extended a hand in Josie’s direction. “Detective Quinn?”

She shook his hand. “Yes, that’s me. This is detective Gretchen Palmer.”

He shook Gretchen’s hand and introduced himself as Special Agent Ruben Oaks of the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team. “We understand you’ve got a missing seven-year-old girl,” Oaks said.

Relief flooded through Josie at the prospect of having more bodies and more resources to help find Lucy. “Yes,” she told him. “And we now know that she’s been kidnapped. Please, come inside and we’ll brief you.”





Fourteen





“Please,” she told the man. “We need heat. It’s too cold in here for a child.”

“Shut up,” the man said. “All you do is complain.”

“An extra blanket then. Please.”

From under the door, I heard the sound of a slap and then the yelp that issued from her throat. I braced myself to hear him hit her again, but the next sound was her footsteps shuffling toward the door. I scurried back, hopping onto the bed as she flew into the room. In the moonlight streaming through the window, I saw a small trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth. She wiped it off with the back of her hand. “Under the covers,” she instructed.

I crawled beneath the threadbare blanket we had to share, and she got in beside me. She held me close to her body and soon, her warmth radiated against my skin. “I’m sorry,” she said.

I didn’t say anything. She looped an arm around my chest, pulling me closer to her. She whispered into my ear. “Someday we’re going to leave here. I promise you.”

“Where will we go?” I asked as quietly as I could.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Home.”

I turned my head until her breath was on my cheek. “Home?”

“Yes,” she said. “Where it’s always warm and there’s plenty to eat. All the toys you could possibly play with, and friends. Lots of friends.”

“Do we have to bring him?”

“No. We won’t ever see him again.”

“You’ll stay with me forever?”

She planted a kiss on top of my head. “Forever. We’ll never be cold or hurt again.”

“I want to go now,” I said.

“Not yet,” she whispered.





Fifteen





The FBI’s CARD team immediately sprang into action. Oaks sent several agents to visit all registered sex offenders within the city limits. They took possession of the note for processing. Josie knew if there were prints to be found on the paper, their lab would get the results back much faster than Denton and the State Police. Josie gave Oaks the names of all the parents who had been in the playground when Lucy disappeared, and he sent a team of agents to run background checks on each one of them and to visit each of them at their homes in case they had anything additional to offer.

Oaks was efficient and no-nonsense, delegating and dispensing orders with speed and assurance. Josie liked him instantly. When he had set up the FBI’s mobile command and dispatched his agents, Josie was able to send most of her people as well as the state police officers and sheriff’s deputies home to rest finally. Once things were well in hand, Oaks turned to Josie and said, “Well, shall we go talk to the parents?”

Mettner and Noah stayed behind to offer any support they could to the FBI team at the mobile command station. Josie and Gretchen joined Oaks and a small team of agents, driving the two blocks to the Ross home in a large Chevy Suburban. One of the other agents drove, while Oaks sat in the back seat with Josie and Gretchen. “What do we know about these parents?” He asked.

Gretchen took out her notebook, squinting at it as the vehicle sped along. Josie gave directions to the driver. “He’s in big pharma. Works for Quarmark. Travels a lot. She’s a stay-at-home mom.”

Josie took out her phone and texted Trinity:

Did you get anything on the Ross parents in NYC?





To Gretchen, she said, “You had a chance to interview them more extensively last night, didn’t you?”

Gretchen nodded. “He’s forty-eight, she’s forty-four. He’s from New York City. She’s from a small town in upstate New York. Fulton. She and her two sisters were raised by a single mother. Her mother and one of her sisters died in a car accident when Amy was twenty-two. She never got along with her other sister, so she moved to New York City and never looked back. She was twenty-nine and working as a waitress when she met Colin. They dated for a while, got married, and Colin got the job at Quarmark. They moved out of New York City into a town close to the headquarters for a few years, then moved here. They’ve lived in the same house for the last five years.”